Volume 6: Foreword

Volume 6: Foreword

DEAR READERS,

I am pleased to announce the publication of the first articles of our 2010 issue, as well as to inform you about TRANSIT’s involvement in the upcoming German Studies Association (GSA) conference, which will be held from October 7-10, 2010 in Oakland, CA.

The issue kicks off with “Spoofing Herzog and Herzog Spoofing,” in which Eric Ames explores the role of humor, parody, and self-parody in works by and about Werner Herzog across a range of media. In “The Province Always Rings Twice: Christian Petzold’s Heimatfilm noir Jerichow,” Alasdair King analyzes Christian Petzold’s use of genre conventions and cinematic tradition to raise questions about the economic and political settlement of Germany set against the urban and provincial spaces of late capitalism, and about the impossibility of returning home. Finally, we bring you two additions to our ongoing discussion of translation and multilingualism in the works of Yoko Tawada: a conversation with Tawada’s French translator Bernard Banoun, as well as “Sonderzeichen Yoko Tawada,” a series of letters between Banoun and Susan Bernofsky, who has translated the works of Tawada and many other authors from German into English. Their correspondence (in German) offers us a glimpse into the translator’s workshop and insight into the particular challenges and pleasures of translating Tawada.

We would also like to let you know about TRANSIT’s involvement in the GSA conference this year. TRANSIT is collaborating with B. Venkat Mani and Elke Segelcke on the presentation of an interdisciplinary series of panels, “Cosmopolitical and Transnational Interventions,” that will take place over the course of the conference. Click here for a complete listing of the panels. Selected papers from this panel series will be published in TRANSIT in Spring 2011.

TRANSIT will also have a table in the exhibition hall (Booth 9) during the conference, displaying our website and offering information about the journal. Please stop by and see us! Also, on behalf of the UC Berkeley German Department, we would like to invite you to a cash bar reception on Saturday, October 9, from 8-10pm in the Oakland Marriott City Center Atrium Lounge. We hope to see you there!

If you can’t make it to Oakland (or even if you can), you can keep abreast of TRANSIT news on our new Facebook page.